Zack the Umbreon
by ChristianDragon
Summary: A reboot of Zack's Adventurous Life! The journey of a shiny Umbreon takes him and his friends far and wide throughout the world; each seeking their own goals as they uncover many mysteries whilst keeping their bonds of friendships strong. What will the cost be in the long run though? Will they be able to handle what they discover? Or will they find themselves in over their heads?


**Welcome one and welcome all to the reboot of Zack's Adventurous Life! I know most of whom who were following that story were probably wondering as to when I would next update. Well... there won't be one. As much as I enjoyed writing Zack's adventures, I realized at some point, (and with some guidance from two Fanfic writers), that the story was, at some point, going to become stagnet. Let me explain my reasoning.**

 **You see, there really wasn't anything wrong with the Pokemon all had their set personalities and are a joy to write from their point of view. However, that doesn't mean that they come without their own flaws. While Charcoal, Skitty, and Zack were mostly on par, Ted and D.Z. were not.**

 **Everytime I wrote from Ted's POV, I found it rather difficult to actually get his fighting style down. There was no direction for him, leaving him the least popular character to be favored. Meanwhile, my plans for D.Z. wasnt going to give him much of the spotlight to be focused upon. I naturally planned for him to be the character that resented the group and not will himself to cooperate for a majority of the story, which begs teh question as to why he was in teh story in the first place.**

 **Then there're the trainers. I wanted to try my hand at including them and working as a team, having Zack's nameless trainer try to bond with them as they traveresed the world. The whole 'nameless trainer' idea was sort of inspired by Buwaro's Tales of Flame, though in that story, the Pokemon actually gave their unnamed trainer the name Moron. So that idea of mine fell short. Not only that, but he and his trainer pal, Laura, were more or less just their for the convience of the story, having no big roles whatsoever.**

 **Lastly, the story plot was rather predictable. Destiny shows up, fight his clan of unnatural Pokemon, and stop him from absorbing the powers of the Legendary Pokemon so he could rule the world; all the meanwhile the protagonists were traveling from town to town to help earn gym badges so that they could compete in the Pokemon League. Boooo-rinnnng! Soo... after about fifty-six chapters, I was given the suggestion of rebooting the story or continuing the original one until it ran into the ground.**

 **So here we are! New story, new adventures, and definitely a better driven plot without human trainers. There might be some human interaction at times, but for the most part, Im making it all about the Pokemon like it should be!**

 **In the meantime, I would like to give a big thanks to ravengal and VGS2 the sexy sausage for their support and for guiding me towards this decision! Go check out their stories as well! They have some pretty amazing stories written! I hope they continue to help me out when needed. I definitely have big plans for this reboot. Some ideas are already in the works so stay tuned!**

* * *

Arc I

Chapter 1: The Battered Adventurer

Everything smelled of brimstone and burnt fur as I slowly staggered through a vast, barren field of grass as far as the eye could see. There was no destination in sight, no goal to achieve, no plan in mind. All that mattered was staying conscious long enough for me to find some medical help. But even then that proved to be a challenge in itself. I had zero idea where I was and how far I was from the nearest town or city. I could feel the exhaustion hitting me harder than a Steelix's Iron Tail to the face; my vision threatening to blur as the perimeter of my eyes showed signs of darkening. There was no telling how long I'd be able to hold out before my body would just quit on me.

Even as I as spoke, or rather thought in this case, I found myself slowing all the more before I eventually came to a stop. _"No!"_ I thought to myself as my body begun to give out. My legs grew weak, trembling greatly. I felt myself begin to sway as a result of this, teetering one way and then the other. Every fiber of my being grew heavy until finally I could stand no more and collapsed upon the ground.

My lungs burned, yearning for the sweet relief of fresh oxygen to clear them out. My mind was a haze, fuzzing out the thoughts and memories of what had recently transpired. Voices that called out to me faded, as did the faces I had come to know in such a short time. The darkness around my eyes began to close in gradually as I lied there, short of breath and incredibly worn. Closer and closer it crept, claiming each of my senses as the need for sleep drew ever so closer. I barely heard what sounded like someone walking about close by. The last thing I saw as what seemed like my eternal slumber started taking me was the outline of a tall, unknown figure walking in my direction.

* * *

The first thing I was aware of upon having woken up was the immense throbbing and pounding against my head. I groaned as I made the attempt to ebb the pain away, only to have rolled over and fallen off of something which my mind was only now realizing. Something attached to my face broke off as I landed on my back, all four paws sticking straight up in the air. "Ow!" I groaned painfully, now fully awake.

"That was a rough landing," I heard someone say.

I uprighted myself as I turned my attention in the direction I heard the mysterious voice come from. I watched as what I could only desribe as a four-legged walking... whatever it was made his way over to me. The one distinguishing feature about this Pokmon was the fact that it had a huge plant-shaped bulb upon its back. How in the world was it not weighing it down?

"You all right?" he asked, snapping me from my thoughts.

"Huh?" I shook my head, having returned to reality as he asked the question again. "Uh... yeah. I do have some questions though. Where am I? Who are you? And how does that thing on your back not weigh you down?"

The Pokemon blinked and craned his head around to get a good look at the plant bulb for several moments before responding. "You know, I never really stopped to consider that. It's just something I've always been used to I guess. Besides, it stores a majority of my attacks."

"I guess that makes sense," I said, not quite understanding the purpose of it, nor how it functioned as a storage for whatever attacked he may have. That'd be something I'd have to learn about later.

"Anywho, I'm Bulbasaur! And this is the Professor's lab!"

"The Professor?" I said, giving him a questioning look. "Who's that?"

"Oh right," the Bulbsaur said. "You were unconscious when you were brought in. Apparently you were found unconscious on the outskirts of town. It's a good thing he found you when he did. Who knows what might have become of you had he not passed by?"

"Why? Is the area dangerous?"

"Not really," the Bulbasur replied. "The fields beyond the town are pretty barren save for the few who inhabit the area. Even then they're low level fighters or so I'm told. So I guess it makes easy passage for those wanting to go about for a walk."

"So then why the big concern if there's no danger?"

"I was kind of referring to the state of health you were in. You looked like you were in bad shape and could have been in severe critical condition the longer you were out there, exposed to the elements."

"I suppose," I said thoughtfully. "Although it's not the worst situation I've been through."

"Eh?" the Bulbasur questioned, raising an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's a bit of a long story, I think," I answered him. "My memory's a little fuzzy on the details."

"Well why not start from as far back as you can rememeber?" the Bulbasaur suggested. "I mean before you got tangled up with whatever it is or was that led you to being in that field?"

"Hmm," I mused thoughtfully, rubbing a paw just under my muzzle as I racked my brain as far back as I could remember. Bits and pieces of my memories flashed to the forefront of my mind; each having no correlation with one another despite how much thought I put into connecting them.

"You all right, dude?" the Bulbasaur asked as I placed a paw upon my head.

"Yeah. I'm just... overthinking things a bit too much," I replied, letting loose a frustrated sigh. "Give me a sec, ok?"

"Sure thing," the Bulbasaur said as I cleared my mind so as to start once again.

Pushing aside the scattered memories, I sought my thoughts for the most recent event that had occurred before the major chunks of what happened after failed to surface forth. I could feel the gears turning about in my head as I quickly flashed through all the places I've been to and what had transpired in each of them, albeit the fact they were not in complete order.

"Aha!" I said after several minutes, startling the Bulbasaur who was slowly drifiting off to sleep. "I think I may have found the spot to start off with!"

"Huh?" the Bulbasaur said with a daze. "Whazz'at?"

"I said I know where to begin," I repeated.

"Oh! OK!" he said with a yawn. "I'm all ears!"

"Great!" I said with a wag of my tail. "It all started when..."


End file.
